The state's attorney in Fall River County is accusing the former occupant of that office of shredding documents and deleting computer files related to the legal case over the city's golf course.

Lance Russell, the former state's attorney, now a state legislator, admitted shredding some documents but denied Jim Sword's accusations about the golf course materials Friday. Russell said he was "amused" by Sword's Feb. 3 letter to the Hot Springs Star, which revealed that a large amount of paperwork was missing.

"Sword's letter is an attempt to take the heat away from the real issue," Russell said.

Russell and other Hot Springs residents say Sword is "burying" the unsealed grand jury transcript in the case against golf course developer Steve Simunek and former mayor Carl Oberlitner to protect his political supporters.

Debbie Okerson, a Hot Springs taxpayer who is appealing to the state Supreme Court for the right to bring the city's most recent payment plan for the golf course to a public vote, had complained that Sword's office recently refused to give her access to the grand jury transcript. Okerson had a copy of the 800-plus page, $140 transcript in her possession, but was missing one page of it.

Okerson said, "… that testimony was unsealed and made public record but was not made available to me when it was requested under the new state's attorney. The objective of our involvement with this issue has always been and continues to be open government with consistent open public access to public records."

In his response in the Star, Sword wrote: "The select few that are distributing the grand jury transcript are cherry-picking only that information which politically favors them."

On Sunday, Sword reiterated that he will make the complete transcript and record of the golf course case available to the public, after he recovers all relevant documents, including any that may have been deleted or destroyed.

"I will get it out, but it's not my top priority," he said. "I've got other stuff that keeps coming up to deal with - like crime."

Immediately after he took office, Sword had the office computer seized for a forensic examination and said the preliminary report is that a large number of files were deleted, including golf course material, but they are recoverable.

Russell admits that, as a part-time state's attorney with a private practice, he deleted many files from the office computer that were not related to Fall River prosecutions. Some were private cases, some involved Lawrence County cases he took on as a special prosecutor because of conflicts in that county, and other files involved work he did on national grasslands issues, Wind Cave National Park and the Hot Springs Library. "I also shredded numerous jury lists from the eight years of preparing for trials, and hand-written notes," he said.

Sword said Russell had no right to do that.

"Of course Mr. Russell admitted to shredding documents - he got caught red-handed," Sword said. "The documents that Mr. Russell shredded were not his. They belonged to the people of Fall River County."

But Russell defended his action as customary in state's attorney transitions and said that it occurred when he took over the office in 2000. He denied that any of the destroyed documents were items related to the golf course investigation.

"I did not delete documents or shred documents of the grand jury investigation," Russell said.

That 2008 grand jury investigation ended in a plea agreement in which golf course developer Steve Simunek pleaded guilty in October to four misdemeanor charges of failure to file sales tax returns or pay sales tax. He paid $400 in fines, was sentenced to six months in jail with all but three days suspended, and has paid almost $50,000 in back taxes and penalties on other unreported income. Charges of misconduct by a municipal officer were dropped against Oberlitner after he agreed to write a public letter of apology for failures of oversight. At Russell's request, the grand jury testimony in those matters, which is ordinarily secret, was unsealed and made available to the public. It is available online at www.representative russell.com.

South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long was surprised to learn that the grand jury transcript had been unsealed by a judge.

"That's unusual," he said. "It's the first time I've ever heard about it."

Long had no comment on the Fall River County computer issue but said his office refers departing state's attorneys to the statute that covers the transfer of public records, SDCL 22-11-25. That law says any person who "lacking the authority to retain a public record in his or her possession, knowingly refuses to deliver it up upon proper request of any person lawfully entitled to receive such record, is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor." The penalty jumps to a Class 1 misdemeanor if the "knowing refusal to deliver is committed by a public officer or employee having custody of the record."